Climate change ignorance

YOUNG landowners need to be educated on the threat posed by climate change, says Rise Beyond the Reef director Janet Lotawa.

She said studies conducted by the NGO in Yakete District, Ba, revealed only 4.7 per cent of the entire district had graduated from secondary school.

"In iTaukei culture, there is no actual word for climate change and in other words, there is no traditional knowledge from the past with which to address the issue," Mrs Lotawa said.

"Climate change is a problem of the present and the future. Today, we are on a mission to promote a different teaching methodology for remote schools but a change that can benefit the whole of Fiji — project-based learning."

She said students usually focused on theory.

"Instead of students in the mountains reading about protecting coral reefs they've never seen, they can take their classroom outside and work on restoring and protecting their local stream banks."